Anyone who has had a passing relationship with a dictionary may notice some sarcasm in the the title. Virtual, by definition, isn’t actual.

Of course, someone has to go about proving that and that has value. In the semantics of whether an artificial relationship is real or not, since ‘artificial’ itself is by definition made by humans. It’s easy to go down a path of thought where all relationships are artificial since they are made by humans, but that’s not really what we’re talking about at all.

We’re talking about human society, psychology, and the impact of relationships with artificial intelligences.

Early on, [Silicon Valley companies] discovered a good formula to keep people at their screens,” said Turkle. “It was to make users angry and then keep them with their own kind. That’s how you keep people at their screens, because when people are siloed, they can be stirred up into being even angrier at those with whom they disagree. Predictably, this formula undermines the conversational attitudes that nurture democracy, above all, tolerant listening.

“It’s easy to lose listening skills, especially listening to people who don’t share your opinions. Democracy works best if you can talk across differences by slowing down to hear someone else’s point of view. We need these skills to reclaim our communities, our democracies, and our shared common purpose.”

“Why virtual isn’t actual, especially when it comes to friends“, Margaret Turkle, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, quoted by Liz Mineo, The Harvard Gazette, December 5th 2023.

If that sounds familiar, it’s a recurring theme. Just last week in AI, Ethics and Us, I pointed to what Miguel Ángel Pérez Álvarez had written on the Spanish version of Wired in “IA: implicaciones éticas más allá de una herramienta tecnológica” which was in the same vein.

Turkle, giving a keynote, had more space to connect the dots and so pointed out that the algorithms Silicon Valley companies use are useful for them to keep all of attached to our screens – but I do think that’s a bit unfair since it’s technology companies, and while there’s a concentration in Silicon Valley, companies around the world are leveraging these algorithms all the time. And as more and more people are noting, it has broader impacts than what we do as individuals.

In fact, if you look at social networks like Facebook and whatever Musk decided to call Twitter next, you’ll find people in algorithmic caves, almost unable to tunnel their way out because they’re quite happy in that algorithmic cave. Within that little cave there is an echo chamber.

An actual echo chamber created by virtual means.